A man who was fatally shot by police at the scene of a double homicide in Adams County Friday morning allegedly called 911 dispatch, confessed to the killing and asked police to shoot him, Adams County Sheriff’s Deputies say.

The 51-year-old man, identified as the son-in-law of the 79-year-old couple who were the residents of the house and the victims in the incident, contacted police before deputies arrived on the scene and described the act he had just committed, said Sgt. Adam Sherman, public information officer for the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, Friday morning.

Upon arriving on the scene at the house just east of Westminster, five Adams County Sheriff’s Deputies encountered the man, who charged towards them out of the house while brandishing a knife, Sherman said. Police gave him verbal directives to drop the weapon, deploying tasers and rubber bullets while moving backwards, but those were not effective, the sergeant said.  

Deputies then shot the suspect; he was later pronounced dead at the hospital, according to authorities. It’s currently not clear how many officers fired their guns, Sherman said. 

After the shooting, deputies entered the residence and did a security sweep, finding the bodies of the two victims inside, Sherman said.

Initial interviews with family members — including the couple’s daughter, who was the man’s spouse — indicate that he acted as a result of a family dispute, and told other family members of his plan to kill his in-laws on Friday morning, Sherman said. 

One of the other 911 calls police received before the incident was from the couple’s adult son, who detailed the suspect’s threats to his parents, Sherman said.

Deputies first responded a call for a wellbeing check just past 5 a.m. on Friday morning at Lofton Court and Kokai Circle in unincorporated Adams County — just east of Westminster, according to a social media thread from the Adams County Sheriff’s Office.

Early information indicates that the suspect crashed a pickup truck into the garage door of the home and went inside, Sherman said. 

Police have not found any signs that the suspect was intoxicated during the incident and do not currently know if he suffered from mental health issues, Sherman added.

Police are working on warrants for the residence, as well as the suspect’s car, to collect more information about the incident, Sherman said. Deputies will also be processing digital evidence — including cellphone records and text messages — during the investigation, the sergeant added. 

Deputies have not yet determined the victims’ manner of death, which will be determined upon an autopsy by the Adams County Coroner, but found a shotgun on the scene left by the suspect in addition to the knife he was holding, Sherman said.

The deputies involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure for an officer-involved shooting, Sherman said in a news release Friday afternoon.